In an effort to shave off vital seconds when responding to emergencies, two Illinois-based fire agencies — Barrington Fire Department and Lake Zurich Fire Rescue Department — will install the Phoenix G2 alert system this Spring.

Both agencies are dispatched by Lake County ETSB, which also serves Antioch, Countryside/Vernon Hills, Grayslake, Lake Villa, Libertyville, Mundelein, Roundlake and Wauconda.

US Digital Designs would like to thank our partners Digicom, Inc, who are assisting our customers with the installation of their fire station alerting systems.

——–

“We say seconds equal muscle, meaning the sooner we start CPR on someone or rescue them from a vehicle or recognize signs of a stroke, the better chance of saving lives,” said Bruce Peterson, assistant fire chief for the Barrington Fire Department.

Later this spring, both the Barrington and Lake Zurich fire departments will start using the Phoenix G2 Fire Station Alerting System, which can save firefighters up to 60 seconds when they are traveling to emergencies, Peterson said.

The new system assists emergency dispatchers, who will be able to type pertinent information during 911 calls straight into a computer-aided system, he said.

The computer system then automatically alerts the appropriate fire stations to incidents, saving time since dispatchers will no longer have to stop their conversations with 911 callers to dispatch firefighters and first responders, officials in both Barrington and Lake Zurich said.

The new system also has lights and speakers that go off in every fire station with the equipment, alerting firefighters while scrolling message boards provide them with addresses to different incidents and tells them how much time has elapsed since an incident alert was made, Peterson said.

Representatives with US Digital Designs, a company in Arizona that makes the Phoenix G2 system, said the system is installed at 2,500 locations in North America and Australia.

Barrington officials recently approved the new emergency response system for $54,300, while Lake Zurich officials approved $56,500 for the new equipment, officials said.

John Kelly, division chief for the Lake Zurich Fire Department, said the new system should cut down needed seconds for firefighters.

“A fire can double in two minutes, and if someone is not breathing or pulseless, 30 seconds could be critical,” Kelly said.

Click to see the original article published on Feb. 20, 2018, by Pioneer Press/Chicago Tribune writer, Todd Shields.